Puget Sound Recovery

Puget Sound recovery focuses on the whole Puget Sound ecosystem, including water quality, habitat, and the entire food chain from plankton to people and orcas. Puget Sound recovery is managed at a watershed scale through the collaboration of local organizations, local governments, and tribes. Those collaborative bodies are called Local Integrating Organizations. There are nine Local Integrating Organizations in the Puget Sound region and two in Kitsap County:

West Sound Partners for Ecosystem Recovery

West Sound Partners for Ecosystem Recovery (WSPER) serves the eastern part of Kitsap County that drains to Puget Sound.

The Hood Canal Coordinating Council serves the west part of Kitsap County that drains to Hood Canal.

​Both organizations:

  1. Develop local Puget Sound recovery strategies
  2. Mobilize organizations to implement the recovery strategies, including policies, habitat protection, and restoration projects, and public engagement.
  3. Coordinate work with their local salmon recovery counterparts.

Each Local Integrating Organization at a minimum consists of a technical working group and some form of board or executive decision-making committee. The charge of each Local Integrating Organization is to:

  • Make smart investments.
  • Make sure only the top priority projects are funded.
  • Combine science, local knowledge, and social values to guide projects.
  • Involve the community.